Guillermo Del Toro's 'Frankenstein' Looks Deliciously, Lushly Strange

Even if you're not super familiar with the name Guillermo Del Toro, you've likely seen his work before. An Academy and BAFTA award-winning director well known for his striking visuals and fascination with monsters who seem altogether human despite their otherness, he's the mind behind such films as Pan's Labyrinth, Pinocchio, and the Best Picture winner The Shape of Water. So it probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that his next project is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, nor that the film is a long-gestating passion project of his. 

The original novel, titled Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, follows the story of a brilliant but deeply flawed scientist who manages to create life when he assembles a monstrous, sentient being out of human body parts and powers its resurrection via a lightning storm. Even if you haven't read the book, these themes and moments are generally seared into our collective consciousness through popular media. Frankenstein has been adapted for screens both large and small dozens of times since the first silent film featuring the creature debuted in 1910. Since then, Frankenstein has been made into over 50 feature films and television series, as well as projects ranging from parodies and cartoons to stage plays and musicals. 

Now, Netflix has released the first set of images from Del Toro's forthcoming film, and it is evident that the director is putting his signature spin on Shelley's classic. The vibes, as the kids say, are immaculate. 

Oscar Isaac (Dune) stars as Victor Frankenstein, opposite the current It Actor of the moment, Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), playing very much against type as the monstrous creature. Not that we know precisely how monstrous said creature is yet, given that the only photo that's so far been released of Elordi shows him heavily swathed in a cloak and scarf. (It seems impossible that Del Toro could make him that unattractive, but, hey, Danny Boyle did it to both Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, so who can say!) 

The first look photos also give us our first looks at Mia Goth (Emma) as Elizabeth Lavenza, here seemingly reimagined as the fiancée of Victor's younger brother, and the object of both the elder Frankenstein and his creature's obsession. (And who, not for nothing, looks as though she stepped straight off the set of Del Toro's Gothic horror Crimson Peak.) Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) is William, a character who has been clearly aged up for this take on the story, and will likely be given a considerably larger role in this version, given that his sole purpose in the novel is essentially to get murdered by the monster when it realizes who his brother is. 

Other intriguing revelations in the new photos include Charles Dance (The Day of the Jackal) as Frankenstein's father Leopold, Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz (Most Dangerous Game) as a mysterious arms dealer known as Harlander, and David Bradley (Doctor Who) as an unidentified old man who is presumably the kind blind man (known as De Lacey in the novel) who takes in the creature and teaches it about humanity after it flees Frankenstein's laboratory. 

Here is the film's logline:

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

The film's larger-than-life, fantastical feel is illustrated through its bold costumes, vivid colors, and slightly over-the-top set dressing (One has to assume that the fact that Frankenstein's table, which raises his creature up like a giant crucifix, is not unintentional.) But Del Toro is apparently predominantly concerned with more human themes of family dynamics and toxic relationships, particularly those between parents and children.

These are the parallels between Pinocchio and Frankenstein,” the filmmaker told Vanity Fair during a set visit. “It’s the idea of a person going from a baby to a human being in a short span of time, and being exposed to everything—cold, warmth, violence, love, loss. And then going to his creator to say, ‘Why? Why did you put me here? Why didn’t you give me the answers? What do I have to learn in my suffering?’”

Del Toro directs the film, having adapted the script himself from Shelley's 1818 novel in the culmination of a years-long personal dream. (He's been talking about making a Frankenstein movie since at least 2007, and basically thanked Mary Shelley for existing during his 2018 BAFTA acceptance speech for Best Director.) He's also an executive producer on the film, alongside J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber.

Frankenstein will have its world premiere in the main competition at this year's Venice Film Festival, before premiering globally on Netflix in November 2025.